Microplastics pollution: An emerging threat to freshwater aquatic ecosystem of India
1038 / 20
Authors
-
Dhruba Jyoti Sarkar
-
Soma Das Sarkar
-
R K Manna
-
S Samanta
-
B K Das
Abstract
Recently, there has been global concern about the occurrence of microplastics (MPs) and their associated ill effects on natural ecosystems. These MPs have detrimental effects on the aquatic biota and possible hazards to human health also. Hence, they have been included in the class of “contaminant of emerging concern†(CEC). They are being studied widely in the marine environment; their sources, fate, and ill-effects to marine life also. Recently it has been considered that rivers of the developed and developing countries, especially India and China, are the biggest sources of plastic pollution to the marine environment. However, till now very little data exists on the inland freshwater ecosystems. This paper reviews the occurrence and distribution of MPs in the inland open waters of India. It was found that MPs occurence are heavily studied in the coastal ecosystem of India. Although, freshwater ecosystems, like lakes, rivers and reservoirs are not touched. Only few rivers like Ganga, Netravathi, Sabarmati are studied for their MPs contamination. The study in the Ganga river showed that MPs load is less as compared to other reported rivers. It was also found that the MPs level in Ganga sediment is correlated with different pollution parameters viz. total phosphate, specific conductivity, and BOD. Key words Microplastics: River Ganga; Pollution parameter; Contaminant; EcosystemReferences
Amrutha, K. and Warrier, A.K. 2020. The first report on the source-to-sink characterization of microplastic pollution from a riverine environment in tropical India. Science of the Total Environment, 739: 140377.
Andrady, A. L. 2011. Microplastics in the marine environment. Marine pollution bulletin, 62(8): 1596-1605.
Anju, N. Mini Sekharan and Harikrishnan, M. 2019. Occurrence of microplastics in gut contents of Sahyadria chalakkudiensis inhabiting a tropical river system in S. India. World Aquaculture Society, Chennai Trade Center, Anonymous, 2017. Knowledge Paper on Plastic Industry for
Infrastructure, 3rd National Conference on sustainable infrastructure with plastics. http://ficci.in/spdocument/ 20872/report-Plastic-infrastructure-2017-ficci.pdf Anonymous, Press Trust of India, June 5, 2019.
Au, S. Y., Lee, C. M., Weinstein, J. E., van den Hurk, P. and Klaine, S. J. 2017. Trophic transfer of microplastics in aquatic ecosystems: identifying critical research needs. Integrated environmental assessment and management, 13(3): 505-509.
Avio, C. G., Gorbi, S. and Regoli, F. 2015. Experimental development of a new protocol for extraction and characterization of microplastics in fish tissues: first observations in commercial species from Adriatic Sea. Marine environmental research, 111: 18-26.
Browne, M. A., Crump, P., Niven, S. J., Teuten, E., Tonkin, A., Galloway, T. and Thompson, R. 2011. Accumulation of microplastic on shorelines worldwide: sources and sinks. Environmental science & technology, 45(21): 9175-9179.
Carpenter, E. J., Anderson, S. J., Harvey, G. R., Miklas, H. P. and Peck, B. B. 1972. Polystyrene spherules in coastal waters. Science, 178(4062): 749-750.
Cole, M., Webb, H., Lindeque, P. K., Fileman, E. S., Halsband, C. and Galloway, T. S. 2014. Isolation of microplastics in biota-rich seawater samples and marine organisms. Scientific reports, 4: 4528.
Colton, J. B., Knapp, F. D. And Burns, B. R. 1974. Plastic particles in surface waters of the northwestern Atlantic. Science, 185(4150): 491-497.
Colwill, J. A., Wright, E. I., Rahimifard, S. And Clegg, A. J. 2012. Bio-plastics in the context of competing demands on agricultural land in 2050. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 5(1): 3-16.
Daniel, D.B., Ashraf, P.M. and Thomas, S.N., 2020. Microplastics in the edible and inedible tissues of pelagic fishes sold for human consumption in Kerala, India. Environmental Pollution, 266: 115365.
de Sá, L. C., Oliveira, M., Ribeiro, F., Rocha, T. L. and Futter, M. N. 2018. Studies of the effects of microplastics on aquatic organisms: what do we know and where should we focus our efforts in the future?. Science of the total environment, 645: 1029-1039.
Dowarah, K. and Devipriya, S.P., 2019. Microplastic prevalence in the beaches of Puducherry, India and its correlation with fishing and tourism/recreational activities. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 148: 123-133.
Foley, C. J., Feiner, Z. S., Malinich, T. D. and Höök, T. O. 2018. A meta-analysis of the effects of exposure to microplastics on fish and aquatic invertebrates. Science of the Total Environment, 631: 550-559.
Fries, E., Dekiff, J. H., Willmeyer, J., Nuelle, M. T., Ebert, M. and Remy, D. 2013. Identification of polymer types and additives in marine microplastic particles using pyrolysis-GC/MS and scanning electron microscopy. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 15(10): 1949-1956.
GESAMP 2015. Sources, fate and effects of microplastics in the marine environment: a global assessment. Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection Reports and studies 90.
Gopinath, K., Seshachalam, S., Neelavannan, K., Anburaj, V., Rachel, M., Ravi, S., Bharath, M. and Achyuthan, H. 2020. Quantification of microplastic in Red Hills Lake of Chennai city, Tamil Nadu, India. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27: 33297-33306.
Green, D. S., Colgan, T. J., Thompson, R. C. and Carolan, J. C. 2019. Exposure to microplastics reduces attachment strength and alters the haemolymph proteome of blue mussels (Mytilus edulis). Environmental pollution, 246:423-434.
Gregory, M. R. 1977. Plastic pellets on New Zealand beaches. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 8(4): 82-84.
Hurley, R., Woodward, J. and Rothwell, J. J. 2018. Microplastic contamination of river beds significantly reduced by catchment-wide flooding. Nature Geoscience, 11(4): 251-257.
Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., et al. 2015. Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science, 347(6223): 768-771.
Jayasiri, H. B., Purushothaman, C. S., Vennila. A. 2013. Quantitative analysis of plastic debris on recreational beaches in Mumbai, India. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 77 (1-2):107-112.
Jeyasanta, K.I., Patterson, J., Grimsditch, G. and Edward, J.P., 2020. Occurrence and characteristics of microplastics in the coral reef, sea grass and near shore habitats of Rameswaram Island, India. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 160: 111674.
Karthik, R., Robin, R.S., Purvaja, R., Ganguly, D., Anandavelu, I., Raghuraman, R., Hariharan, G., Ramakrishna, A. and Ramesh, R., 2018. Microplastics along the beaches of southeast coast of India. Science of The Total Environment, 645: 1388-1399.
Kataoka, T., Nihei, Y., Kudou, K. and Hinata, H. 2019. Assessment of the sources and inflow processes of microplastics in the river environments of Japan. Environmental pollution, 244: 958-965.
Kumar, V.E., Ravikumar, G. and Jeyasanta, K.I., 2018. Occurrence of microplastics in fishes from two landing sites in Tuticorin, South east coast of India. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 135: 889-894.
Kwon, J. H., Chang, S., Hong, S. H. and Shim, W. J. 2017. Microplastics as a vector of hydrophobic contaminants: Importance of hydrophobic additives. Integrated environmental assessment and management, 13(3): 494-499.
Lahens, L., Strady, E., Kieu-Le, T. C., Dris, R., Boukerma, K., Rinnert, E., et al. 2018. Macroplastic and microplastic contamination assessment of a tropical river (Saigon River, Vietnam) transversed by a developing megacity. Environmental Pollution, 236: 661-671.
Lambert, S., Sinclair, C. and Boxall, A. 2014. Occurrence, degradation, and effect of polymer-based materials in the environment. In Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, Volume 227 (pp. 1-53). Springer,Cham.Lebreton, L. C., Van Der Zwet, J., Damsteeg, J. W., Slat, B., Andrady, A. and Reisser, J. 2017. River plastic emissions
to the world’s oceans. Nature communications, 8: 15611.
Mohsen, M., Wang, Q., Zhang, L., Sun, L., Lin, C., & Yang, H. 2019. Microplastic ingestion by the farmed sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus in China. Environmental pollution, 245: 1071-1078.
Naidu, S. A. 2019. Preliminary study and first evidence of presence of microplastics and colorants in green mussel, Perna viridis (Linnaeus, 1758), from southeast coast of India. Marine pollution bulletin, 140: 416-422.
Naidu, S.A., 2019. Preliminary study and first evidence of presence of microplastics and colorants in green mussel, Perna viridis (Linnaeus, 1758), from southeast coast ofIndia. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 140: 416-422.
Patel, A.K., Bhagat, C., Taki, K. and Kumar, M., 2020. Microplastic vulnerability in the sediments of the Sabarmati river of India. In Resilience, Response, and Risk in Water Systems (pp. 127-138). Springer, Singapore.
Patterson, J., Jeyasanta, K.I., Sathish, N., Booth, A.M. and Edward, J.P., 2019. Profiling microplastics in the Indian edible oyster, Magallana bilineata collected from the Tuticorin coast, Gulf of Mannar, Southeastern India. Science of the Total Environment, 691: 727-735.
PlasticsEurope 2019. Plastics-the facts 2019: an analysis of European plastics production, demand and waste data. http://www.plasticseurope.org
Rodrigues, J. P., Duarte, A. C., Santos-EcheandÃa, J. and RochaSantos, T. 2019. Significance of interactions between microplastics and POPs in the marine environment: a critical overview. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 111: 252-260.
Sarkar D. J., Das Sarkar S., Manna R. K. and Das B. K. 2020b.
Microplastic pollution : threat to Indian river system., Everyman’s Science, LIV (6): 378-384.
Sarkar, D. J., Sarkar, S. D., Das, B. K., Manna, R. K., Behera, B. K. and Samanta, S. 2019. Spatial distribution of meso and microplastics in the sediments of river Ganga at eastern India. Science of the Total Environment, 694: 133712.
Sarkar, D. J., Sarkar, S. D., Mukherjee, S. And Das, B. K. 2020a. Impact and Fate of Microplastics in the Riverine Ecosystem. In: Contaminants in Drinking and Wastewater Sources (pp. 95-115). Springer, Singapore.
Sathish, M.N., Jeyasanta, I. and Patterson, J. 2020. Occurrence of microplastics in epipelagic and mesopelagic fishes from Tuticorin, Southeast coast of India. Science of the Total Environment, 720: 137614.
Shukla, A.K., Ojha, C.S.P., Mijic, A., Buytaert, W., Pathak, S., Garg, R.D. and Shukla, S., 2018. Population growth, land use and land cover transformations, and water quality nexus in the Upper Ganga River basin. Hydrology & Earth System Sciences, 22(9): 4745-4770.
Srinivasalu, S., Natesan, U., Ayyamperumal, R., Kalam, N., Anbalagan, S., Sujatha, K. and Alagarasan, C., 2020. Microplastics as an emerging threat to the freshwater ecosystems of Veeranam lake in South India: A multidimensional approach. Chemosphere, 264(2): 128502.
Sruthy, S., and Ramasamy, E. V. 2017. “Microplastic pollution in Vembanad Lake, Kerala, India: the first report of microplastics in lake and estuarine sediments in India. Environmental pollution, 222: 315-322.
Sundar, S., Chokkalingam, L., Roy, P.D. and Usha, T., 2020. Estimation of microplastics in sediments at the southernmost coast of India (Kanyakumari). Environmental Science and Pollution Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10333-x.
Tanaka, K. and Takada, H. 2016. Microplastic fragments and microbeads in digestive tracts of planktivorous fish from urban coastal waters. Scientific reports, 6: 34351.
Tata Strategic 2014. Potential of plastics industry in Northern India with special focus onplasticulture and food processing-2014. A report on plastics industry. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. New Delhi
Veerasingam, S., Mugilarasan, M., Venkatachalapathy, R. and Vethamony, P. 2016. Influence of 2015 flood on the distribution and occurrence of microplastic pellets along the Chennai coast, India. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 109(1): 196-204.
Veerasingam, S., Saha, M., Suneel, V., Vethamony, P., Rodrigues, A.C., Bhattacharyya, S. and Naik, B.G. 2016. Characteristics, seasonal distribution and surface degradation features of microplastic pellets along the Goa coast, India. Chemosphere, 159: 496-505.
Vidyasakar, A., Krishnakumar, S., Kasilingam, K., Neelavannan, K., Bharathi, V.A., Godson, P.S., Prabha, K. and Magesh, N. S. 2020. Characterization and distribution of microplastics and plastic debris along Silver Beach, Southern India. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 158: 111421.
Vidyasakar, A., Neelavannan, K., Krishnakumar, S., Prabaharan, G., Priyanka, T.S.A., Magesh, N.S., Godson, P.S. and Srinivasalu, S. 2018. Macrodebris and microplastic distribution in the beaches of Rameswaram Coral Island, Gulf of Mannar, Southeast coast of India: A first report. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 137: 610-616.
Wagner, M., Scherer, C., Alvarez-Mu~noz, D., Brennholt, N., Bourrain, X., Buchinger, S., Fries, E.,Grosbois, C., Klasmeier, J., Marti, T., Rodriguez-Mozaz, S., Urbatzka,
R., Vethaak, A., Winther-Neilson, M. and Reifferscheid, G. 2014. Microplastics in freshwater ecosystems: what we know and what we need to know. Environmental Science Europe, 26(1): 12.
Wang, Z., Su, B., Xu, X., Di, D., Huang, H., Mei, K., et al. 2018. Preferential accumulation of small (< 300 ìm)
microplastics in the sediments of a coastal plain river network in eastern China. Water research, 144: 393- 401.
Waters, C. N., Zalasiewicz, J., Summerhayes, C., Barnosky, A. D.,Poirier, C., Ga³uszka, A., et al. 2016. The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene. Science, 351(6269): 2622.
Xiong, X., Wu, C., Elser, J. J., Mei, Z. and Hao, Y. 2019. Occurrence and fate of microplastic debris in middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River–From inland to the sea. Science of the Total Environment, 659: 66-73.
Downloads
Submitted
Published
Issue
Section
License
In case of publication of the article in the journal, author(s) are required to assign copyright to the Journal of the Inland Fisheries Society of India for its publication in any form/language including all media (print and electronic, or presently unknown), and exclusive right to use the matter for the life of the work (no time restriction on re use of matter).